Posted on: 16 Dec 2006
All the rituals must be done according to the scriptures, but they should be done with proper understanding of their real spirit. No ritual is condemned by Me but it should be analyzed in depth and then only should be done with proper spirit and direction so that the real fruit can be achieved. When you are unable to understand even the translation of the Vedic hymns recited in rituals, how can you understand the deep sense of the scholarly language of God? When you study an epic written by a poet, you are expected to know all Shastras like grammar, figures of speech and logic to bring out the sense of the word used by the poet etc. In such case, what about the single non-polluted scripture like the Veda, which is written by God, who is the king of poets? But you are simply reciting the hymns without knowing even the simple meaning of a single word!
Today, there is no correlation between the hymn and the ritual. You are simply performing the ritual as guided by the ignorant priest, who is also your brother in not knowing any word in the hymn. When the correlation is lost, you are doing something unrelated and foolish action, which is irrelevant to the meaning and sense of hymns. For example you are pouring the ghee in the fire and burning the oil in religious lights, which are not bringing any divine fruit and instead brings sin by polluting the atmosphere. The word fire is a simile for a hungry Satguru or devotee. Ghee and oil mean the food items prepared by ghee and oil, which are considered to be the best energetic items. When you offer such best food to a deserving hungry person, the sacrifice is completed. The fire and light indicate the knowledge that radiates from the Satguru and devotees after eating such best energetic foods. Even if a poor man eats such best food, his brain will be energetic to think about God. The physical fire in the sacrifice is meant for cooking the best food item with ghee or oil. Similarly, the rituals after death are also done without realizing the spirit. They become waste and the root-reason for this is lack of understanding and analysis of the Vedic hymns. All those hymns after death simply mean praying God to help the departed soul. You can call the best devotees and pray God in your own mother tongue since God is beyond language and such a prayer has some use for departed soul. The priest says in the beginning of ritual that by the ritual, the soul shall go to the abode of God (Brahma Loka). But, at the end, he is performing the ritual of donation of cow (Godanam), which clearly states that the departed soul is only going to the hell. If that is the case, what is the use of all the money spent on the priest and ritual? Normally, any departed soul will definitely go to hell only. In that case, what happened to all the money that is spent? You must appreciate other religions in this ritual, who pray God in their own language. Nobody analyzes anything and the practice is simply blind. Jesus was said to be a Sheppard, who is the Lord of souls. All the souls are like blind sheep, which simply follow the other blindly. Lord Shiva is said to be Pashupati, which means that, He is the Lord of animals.
Sacrifice is The Essence of Rituals
The animal can never understand the meaning of any word and it simply follows the sound. Similarly, the blind people are just following the sound produced on recitation without knowing the meaning of any word. When the people are unable to understand even these ordinary Vedic rituals, how can they grasp the essence of the climax of the Veda (Vedanta)? The overall essence of all the rituals is only offering food and money (Dakshina) to a deserving divine person or atleast to a beggar. This very essence is lost because all the undeserving priests are benefited, who do not know the simple meaning of simple rituals. You must select the deserving divine person by his knowledge and practice, but not by his external dress. The deservingness is mainly characterized by the absence of desire (Akamahatasya…Veda). If people do not misunderstand Me, all My closest devotees are the best deserving divine persons to be worshipped by anyone on this earth in any ritual. They only lack the external dress, which cheats the public. All these devotees are tested by Me through acid tests and they do not have even a trace of desire for anything except God. You can never get the human incarnation like Me to guide you and you can never get the deserving persons for worship like My devotees. The rituals are the steps of training in the spiritual path. When these rituals are misinterpreted, the misinterpretation is severely condemned by God, which does not mean that the ritual is condemned. Swami Dayananda criticized the idol worship severely because the priests were exploiting the innocent public through idols. His criticism is so severe that it appeared as if it is criticizing the idol worship. The criticism is always about the misinterpretation and exploitation in the system but not condemning the very system. The followers always misunderstand the original preacher. Similarly, a ritual is praised as the best to encourage the beginner. For a person on the ground, the first step is praised as the final step. Such a lie is having good purpose and should not be taken as the reality in the strict sense. You have to cross all these whirlpools in the way and swim the river to reach its bank and realize the real essence.
Understand the Divine Administration
[Shri Partha Sarathi from California (U.S.A.) asked about the injustice that is winning in these days even in the courts.]
Swami replied: The administration of the country through Government and courts is integrated with the underlying invisible administration of God. Every judge on this earth is controlled by God who is the ultimate divine judge. Sometimes, the judge in the court is mislead and gives wrong judgment so that the sinner is benefited and a good fellow is put to loss. The reason for this is that the good fellow now was a sinner in the previous birth or in the earlier time of this birth and grabbed the money or some form of wealth like work of the present sinner. The wrong judgment did the final justice only by the will of God. The case is closed here. But, if you are a devotee of God, you will be compensated with some wealth elsewhere. You need not be upset with the wrong judgment because you are unaware of the complete background of the case. Your devotion to God has its own fruit separately and will not interfere with the judiciary system. The good and bad will have their own results separately and will not cancel each other. If good can cancel bad, every one will be tempted to do bad in a pressing situation so that it can be cancelled by doing some good later on. You expect to win the case in the court by your devotion to God. But, the judgment of God has its own analysis and is not affected by any other factor except the strict procedure of the constitution of God for the deeds and their relevant fruits. The administration of God is always without any blame and sometimes people criticize God, blaming that God is sleeping. Actually your ignorance is your sleep and therefore, you are blaming God without knowing the complete background. People expect practical results for theoretical devotion. They ask for large and thick bread by supplying a spoon of wet flour! Either the bread will be large and thin or the bread will be small and thick for [that] flour. You are trying to soap God by flattering Him through prayers or by expressing your exceptional talent in begging (like crying etc.). God is aware of everything and fools you in return by dragging the good fruits from the next birth with reduced value and giving them to you.
The reaction of God is hundred times more intensive but it will be in the same direction of action. If you come forward by one step, He will come forward by hundred steps. The necessity is on the side of the souls and therefore, the first step should be from the side of the souls only. If your devotion is conditioned by the limits, His grace is also conditioned by the limits of the justice of the wheel of deeds (karma chakra). If your devotion is theoretical, His grace is also theoretical. If your devotion is practical, His grace is also practical. Knowledge is the basic foundation, above which the walls of devotion have to rise. The final roof is service to God. Service is sacrifice of work and fruit of work. Only service, which is the form of work can have the practical fruit. The fruit of work is another form of work and is considered as work itself. You worked for one hour and earned hundred rupees. When you sacrifice these hundred rupees to the work of God, it means you have worked for God for one hour. Knowledge is like your qualifying degree. Devotion (theoretical) is like the interview attended by you and the subsequent appointment order. If you sit in your house with the degree and with the appointment order, salary is not paid. Advaitins claim salary for getting the degree itself. Even that degree is not a proper one. Devotees are like the proper degree holders with the proper appointment order and they cannot also claim the salary by sitting in the house. You have to join the job and do work for the entire month. You will get salary at the end of the month for the work you have done during the month. Devotees recognize the separate Lord and love Him really but are not concentrating on the service to be done to the present incarnation of their generation. They simply dance and sing about the past human incarnations or energetic forms. For their theoretical devotion, God increases their devotion only without any practical fruit. Ofcourse, they are better than people, who simply discuss about God always without expression of love in theory and practice. Therefore, service only can get the fruit. Ofcourse, proper knowledge and appointment order are essential to qualify the candidate to join the service. Without the true knowledge and without the real devotion, one may join the service but after sometime, if the candidate has not updated his degree, his service cannot be made permanent and he will have to leave the job after sometime and even the salary paid will be recovered sometimes if the degree is proved to be from a bogus University. This is the case of a devotee with incomplete correct knowledge or wrong knowledge. The incomplete correct knowledge will give the temporary service. The wrong knowledge will lead to removal with recovery of the fruit. Both these cases have devotion and service for solving their own materialistic problems. The former case realizes and updates his knowledge to the higher levels and completes it. But, the latter case is always in the path of selfish materialism only and never rectifies since this case wants to continue to exploit or corrupt God for selfishness. In this latter case, the fruits given to him will be recovered from his own account.
Present People Exhibit Highly Transient Qualities
[Smt. Padma Ram asked that the case of liberated souls, [who] accompany the Lord in His work must have been different, since their participation is pre-planned along with the program of the human incarnation.]
Swami replied: Even a permanent employee should be alert of his duties and service. He is not an exception to the normal procedure. Ofcourse, the Lord alerts him often through his or her soul by giving memos. If the liberated soul does not care due to ego, it will cross the border of the inner circle and will be mixed with the general public. Ofcourse, due to the strength of the Samskara, the soul is expected to return back after realization. The soul will not come back as long as its ego continues. After all, even a liberated soul is also a soul and not God. Even the permanent employee is an employee only and not employer. Narada, the top most devotee, was involved in a human birth when ego entered him. Sudarshana is a similar case, who was born as Kartaviryaarjuna. They returned back after the end of their ego. The only exceptional cases of liberated souls, who never crossed the inner circle of God, are Hanuman and Radha. When ego enters the heart of the liberated soul, the heart itself will show the raise in the temperature like thermometer. The liberated soul has enough knowledge to note the raise in temperature and is not a child for which only some elders note the fever and give medicine. A grown up person approaches doctor for treatment. Similarly, the liberated soul approaches the Satguru for treatment. The liberated soul is well talented in the diagnosis.
The human beings are having different proportions of the three qualities. In the old generations, a human being has a fixed ratio of the three qualities through out its life. It is easy for the doctor-Satguru to give a report about the ratio of a specific human being. But today, the situation is very much amazing because a specific individual is changing the composition of the three qualities in every five minutes! No report can be given in the case of any human being. The report can be given stating that this particular soul is having this particular ratio on this day at this time. In one minute, you believe Me as God. In the next minute, you treat Me as a human being possessed by God. In the next minute, you decide that I am a partial incarnation of God. In the next minute, your mind proposes that I am a devoted human being. In the next minute, your intelligence decides that I am an ordinary human being with artificial devotion. In the next minute, you conclude that I am a fraud. These states of your mind recycle again and again. Some devotees ask Me to inform them regarding their state in the spiritual journey (Sadhana). Which report should I give? Now I am declaring that I am the very Lord Dattatreya, who came down to this earth to guide you in the spiritual path. Tell Me, how many of you can stand on this faith? I am observing your minds and decisions every minute continuously. In one minute, you are very near to Me in the inner circle. After five minutes, you are in a foreign country, which is very far! I am also changing My positions in every minute to suit to the conclusions of a devotee and I am simultaneously existing in different positions to suit to different devotees. I am dancing according to your dance. I am mad by speaking in various ways since you are mad in various ways. You are confusing yourselves and blame Me as if I am confusing all of you! When you are discouraged, I encourage you by telling that you are My inner most and most dear liberated soul. But, when ego enters your mind and you become inactive, I will expose the reality. Now you blame Me that I am liar!